Monday 18 January 2010 08.10 EST
First published on Monday 18 January 2010 08.10 EST

Over the past two years Maria Sharapova has been back to the drawing board more times than most artists. After suffering her earliest grand slam defeat in seven years today, the Russian left knowing she will need to do an awful lot of hard work if she is ever to get back to the top.

Considering that Maria Kirilenko was ranked as high as No18 just 18 months ago, her 7-6, 3-6, 6-4 first-round victory was not a massive surprise but for Sharapova – a player who has won three grand-slam titles, including a triumph here in 2008, and who has been ranked No1 in the past – it is an obvious setback.

With Serena Williams setting the pace at the top and with the US Open champion Kim Clijsters and another former world No1, Justine Henin, very much back in the mix after their returns from retirement, Sharapova was already playing catch-up. Now she faces a long, hard road if she is to show she deserves her place in the elite.

Sharapova's gutsy nature has never been in question and it was in evidence again today when she hit back from 5-2 down in the final set, breaking ­Kirilenko when she served for the match at 5-3. At that point, it looked as if she would produce another comeback victory but uncharacteristically her nerve failed her at the worst moment and she slipped to defeat.

The good news for the 22-year-old was that her fitness held up well in a match that lasted 3hr 22min. After having shoulder surgery in October 2008, the former Wimbledon, US Open and Australian Open champion was out of action for almost a year and it is not surprising that she is still searching for the kind of consistency that took her to the top.

After toying with a remodelled service action when she first came back, Sharapova abandoned it after the US Open last September, when she served 21 double faults in her defeat to the American, Melanie Oudin. Her victory in Tokyo towards the end of last year was a step in the right direction and she ended the year ranked No14.

Against Kirilenko she still hit 11 double faults but the Russian said she was happy with her serve, even if she admitted that some parts of her game were still lacking. "I wouldn't say it's (a lack of) belief," she said. "I think belief is either something you have or you don't have. Whether it's just a little bit of confidence … obviously it's the first tournament of the year and I just came up against somebody that just played really good tennis. That's just the way it goes."

When she is at her best, Sharapova can easily beat all but the very best of her rivals and what annoyed her most today was that after a strong start, when she led 4-2 in the first set and had two points to lead 5-2, she let Kirilenko back into the match. "I could be disappointed or I could just take it as it is and just go back on the court and just keep working," she said. "I choose option two.

"It's a bad day and you have to get on with your life. There are many worse situations in life. There are people that don't even know what a tennis match is in the world. A bad day's not going to stop me from doing what I love. I'm still going to go back on the court and work hard and perform. I'll be back here on a Saturday of the second week."

Clijsters was far too good for the Canadian qualifier Valérie Tétreault as she won 6-0, 6-4 and Henin, playing her first match at a grand slam event for two years, eased to a 6-4, 6-3 win over another Belgian, Kirsten Flipkens. Henin is trying to emulate Clijsters' achievement in winning a grand slam on her return, but we will know more about her chances on Wednesday when she takes on the No5 seed Elena Dementieva in the second round.

Britain's women's No1 Elena Baltacha battled through a bout of cramp and testing conditions to reach the second round with a 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 win over Pauline Parmentier of France. The Scot next plays the No30 seed Kateryna Bondarenko in the second round on Wednesday.